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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 3934 ..

MR MOORE: Because I was born with a brain. I was born the same as almost anybody else. I was one of nine. I was one person in a family of nine children. Mr Speaker, one of the things that Canberra offers is opportunity. There is a great opportunity for ordinary people to make of their life what they will. My wife and I have been schoolteachers. We have made of our lives what we could. If that makes us rich, I would think that most members in this Assembly would say that that is the advantage of living in this style of society as opposed to a communist society, and I am very proud of that. I do not have any problem at all with it.

Getting back to the issue of redevelopment, people work very hard to live in a special sort of environment, and that applies to lots of people in Ainslie. Perhaps that is what Labor did not understand when they were in charge of planning over the last five or six years. There has been significant contention over this issue in Ainslie, and that is why the proposal that I have put up, to refer this to the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment, is most appropriate. We should look at the appropriateness of the proposed development of this area.

I must say that I have real doubts about a whole series of things that are proposed, but amongst them there are probably some very good ideas that are well worth discussing. Individual members of the community should have the chance to make an input, and the best way to do that is through the Planning Committee. I do not think that that stops the Government continuing its process. It will allow us to monitor the process that the Government is running, and it will allow residents to comment on that process as well. Of course, the motion also refers to "any other related matter" because invariably through this sort of process other issues are raised and it is appropriate for the Assembly to be able to consider those.

Mr Speaker, the final paragraph in this motion is:

the Assembly calls on the Government to take no further action to implement the Ainslie plan until the Committee has tabled its Report in the Assembly.

I think this is a very effective way of ensuring that Ainslie people can be heard in a fair and reasonable way. The Government should hold back and allow the consultation process to run its full course. I think this is a very proper way for an issue like that to be considered by this Assembly. It will demonstrate yet again, Mr Speaker, that this Assembly and its committees are always willing to listen to the community and to take on these issues. The Assembly as a whole takes on the issues through this committee process.

I hope that this proposal will receive the full support of members of the Assembly, even though we will have some slight differences as to how this process should go on and how it should not go on. Those differences can often be resolved within the committee process as we expand our knowledge and develop our understanding, even though we have been through an election at which we presented a certain view. We may begin to

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